


hi soulmate (bye soulmate)

by kctheb



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, F/M, FUCK any other movie this is the only thing i stan rn, M/M, Multi, Sorry Not Sorry, i'll add more tags if i think of anything, im ... uh ... ignoring everything ever, its 2012 avengers found family beaches, its a crossover beaches, kind of, miscommunication and misunderstanding, oh yeah, we shan't forget that our babies are dyslexic either do not worry, yes it is another weird pairing shut up did i ask, yet another soulmate au from yours truly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 01:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kctheb/pseuds/kctheb
Summary: Percy was just getting ready to hang up his apron and switch out with the closing shift when the door chimed. He looked up with a smile already in place to greet the newest customer when he saw him.Holy shit.He ducked instantly when his brain made the connection. For some reason, he opened up the cupboard door underneath the cash register and shoved himself in before closing the door.Alternatively, Percy shoves himself into a cupboard and Steve makes all the wrong connections about it. There's also a Kraken, because why not?





	hi soulmate (bye soulmate)

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall ,,, its ya girl ,,, back with another soulmate au. but author, you cry, when will you write something that isn't a soulmate fic. well, i respond, probably never lmao get wrecked. also, i am sorry that this is somehow 13500+ words, that was never my intention. so here i gift you yet another behemoth soulmate one shot. enjoy pls

There was that one saying that went something like “What if you met your soulmate right before one of you died?”. Percy was less than pleased to announce that he knew exactly what that was like. Both ways, in fact. He and his soulmate were apparently quite the thorough ones. They’d been dancing around each other at least a dozen of lifetimes already, and it didn’t seem like this one would be any different.

In a world where every soulmate pair/triad/quartet/etc. had a special way of connecting to each other, Percy and his other half had been frustrated every time when, quickly after meeting each other, one of them kicked the bucket. Last time his soulmate had been a stunningly attractive American soldier during WW2, and he had been a – if he was allowed to brag – mind-numbingly beautiful English schoolteacher who took her students to meet the Howling Commandoes while they were in London. One angry British citizen later, and she had been bleeding out in his arms. Quite romantically tragic. Or was it tragically romantic?

Whatever, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

What _did _matter was that this was essentially how all of their first – and only – meetings went every time they met each other in each new life. It was enough to drive someone mad. Which was why Percy was _very _careful to avoid dangerous situations. Not like he was overwhelmingly successful in that endeavor – _hello_, he was a child of one of the Big Three. His existence was like catnip for monsters.

Endlessly frustrating, was how he’d describe his life. Just once he’d like to be able to sit down and actually get to know his soulmate for once, maybe even seal the bond with them, but _no_, the Fates had plans to make him their bitch that even he couldn’t stop.

Annabeth just snickered at him when he said that, like she hadn’t been exceedingly grateful when she managed to bond with Piper soon after they’d met. They hadn’t sealed the bond, since both of their mothers insisted a formal bonding ceremony take place beforehand. Piper and Annabeth’s fathers were more than pleased with the opportunity to regale their captive audience with stories of their daughter’s childhoods. Percy was nearly giddy with excitement himself when he realized he would be able to poke fun at Annabeth in his Bestest Man speech. (Jason had looked hilariously indignant when Annabeth named him that after Piper decided that Jason would be her Best Man.)

Percy forcefully shook himself back into reality, blanking for a moment before realizing he was supposed to be punching in a customer’s order. He offered said customer a sheepish smile before bringing up their total. “That’ll be 23.61, ma’am.” The woman finished the transaction with only one eye roll before moving herself over to a small table by the window. Thankfully Mrs. Blackburn was a regular and therefore quite used to Percy’s ADHD or he might have had a ‘can I speak with your manager’ moment. As much fun as it was to cheerfully inform them that he was, in fact, actually the owner and how could he help them, it was almost never worth the trouble.

Percy moved around behind the counter, grabbing a cup from under the counter and sidling over to the espresso machine to make Mrs. Blackburn’s preferred coffee. His hands moved on autopilot as he registered the noises Leo made from in the kitchen that meant he was starting on her food. While Percy waited for the coffee to finish dripping into the mug, he prepared both the cream for the top and the lemon water the woman normally requested. He hummed cheerfully as he pulled a tray out from under the cash register and set the water on top of it.

He grabbed the cup of cream and set out to create his most recently mastered bit of latte art. His mother had laughed herself silly when she saw it for the first time, and he hoped Mrs. Blackburn would appreciate it, too. After a bit of finagling, Percy managed to get both the drinks on the tray with the two raspberry scones and lifted up a part of the counter to make his way over to Mrs. Blackburn.

The woman did indeed enjoy the ocean scene on the top of her latte, but gave a dramatic sigh when she realized that drinking her latte would cause the fish swimming around in the kelp to disappear. “Mr. Jackson, if you could ever manage to create a drink that I don’t feel bad consuming, I would greatly appreciate it.”

Percy just grinned and tucked the empty tray under his arm. “Sorry Mrs. Blackburn, I’ll try to make a design you consider appropriate for drinking next time.”

In the next couple hours, Percy lost himself to chatting with his regulars and serving food. _The Ocean Floor_ had mostly regulars, but there were always a couple new faces every day, whether they were tourists or New Yorkers who were looking for something other than a chain restaurant. Maybe even a suit who just wanted a coffee and muffin before heading off to their next meeting. Percy was just getting ready to hang up his apron and switch out with the closing shift when the door chimed. He looked up with a smile already in place to greet the newest customer when he saw him.

Holy _shit_.

He ducked instantly when his brain made the connection. For some reason, he opened up the cupboard door underneath the cash register and shoved himself in before closing the door.

Percy’s brain scrambled to make sense of what he’d just seen even as he heard another worker step up to the register with a polite, if confused, “Hi, welcome to _The Ocean Floor_, my name is Chance, how can I help you?” Percy sat frozen and uncomfortable in the small space he’d forced himself into.

It couldn’t be.

Two voices gave their orders above him as his wide eyes adjusted to the dark.

There was no way.

Chance cheerfully suggested the double chocolate chip muffin after the woman asked what bakery treat was his favorite.

_This cupboard really needs cleaned_. Percy’s nose twitched in warning and his hands reached up to cover his nose before he sneezed. Loudly. And also slammed his head into the top of the cupboard. The voices above him cut off abruptly and Percy sunk down lower against the cupboard wall, his knees pressing against the top.

Chance started speaking again before the silence could get too stilted, and when he had a chance to be heard over Leo’s braying laughter. “Alright, I have a Mocha Cappuccino with hazelnut, an Iced Americano with two pumps of caramel, a slice of apple pie, and a double chocolate chip muffin. Is that all?”

A woman’s voice was heard agreeing and the regular sounds of the restaurant filtered in through the cupboard walls. Percy’s phone buzzed from inside his apron and he pulled it out to see a text from Leo.

**from: supreme sized mcidiot**

**>>> bro wtf was that lmao**

Percy flushed even pinker than he’d already been and he jabbed the keyboard of his phone in embarrassment.

**to: supreme sized mcidiot**

**<<< shut ur fuck valdez i paniked**

**<<< it was either shove miself into a cupboard 2 sml to rlly hold me/start shrieking**

Percy didn’t have to strain his ears to hear Leo’s responding laugher. He was pretty sure the people walking on the sidewalk outside the café could hear him cackling.

**to: supreme sized mcidiot**

**<<< SHUT UP**

Leo only laughed louder.

** _h-s-b-s_ **

It was about ten minutes after Percy sent his last text to Leo that his phone buzzed again, shutting off his concentration and making his frog sink into the water. _Damn_, _there went my high score_, Percy thought with a sigh. He shifted uncomfortably in his cramped position and slammed his head on the top of the cupboard. The thud made Leo start laughing again. Percy cursed the Fates.

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> leo told me ur in a cabinet????**

**>>> ur such a disaster perce**

Percy scowled. Of course Leo told Annabeth. That meant Piper had to know, too, and so it was probably all-over social media. He didn’t even want to check Twitter. Piper had almost 5.4 million followers, he didn’t want to know how far his tale of woe had spread across the internet.

**to: oh wise ass**

**<<< beth pls**

**<<< im haveing a crisis**

Percy felt trapped in his skin as he waited for his best friend to respond. Finally, just as his screen was falling asleep, his phone buzzed back to life with a new notification.

**new group chat**

**members: oh wise ass, petty little pied piper, me**

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> tell mama annabeth & auntie piper ur woes, oh misfortunate childe**

Percy sighed loudly and leaned his head back against the wall behind him. Of course.

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> yes pls percy. tell us everything**

**to: oh wise ass, petty little pied piper**

**<<< i want the both of u 2 kno that i hate u**

**<<< also :((((. pipes that was mean**

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> lmao get rekt loser**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> cmon jackson spill the tee**

**>>> tea***

**>>> fuck disklexya**

**>>> oh gods i fuking give up**

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> LMAO BETH GET REKT**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> love u babe, but fuck off**

**>>> lets go perce i dont have all day u know**

Percy contemplated the pros and cons of ignoring Annabeth. There weren’t many pros. The cons list included Annabeth marching herself over to _The Ocean Floor_ and bodily pulling him out of his hidey hole. He decided he would answer her.

**to: oh wise ass, petty little pied piper**

**<<< i think my soulmate is here pls help me**

** _multiple people are typing_ **

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> oh shit**

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> HOLY FUCK**

**>>> OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> wait ,,,**

**>>> percy how do u know that ,,,**

**>>> when you climbed in a cabinet as soon as he walked in**

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> ooh good point babey**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> baby***

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> i said what i said annabeth**

Percy wondered how upset his mother would be if he jumped into Tartarus again.

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> PERCY**

**>>> HOWD U KNOW**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> dont make me come get u seaweed brain**

**to: oh wise ass, petty little pied piper**

**<<< pls dont**

**<<< plssssssss**

**<<< let me keep the dignity i hav left**

**from: oh wise ass **

**>>> fine**

**>>> come to our place after ur boo leafs**

**>>> leaves***

**from: petty little pied piper**

**>>> what up im jared**

**from: oh wise ass**

**>>> stfu piper**

** _h-s-b-s_ **

Percy uncrammed himself from the cabinet after he got the all clear text from Leo only to see Leo himself leaning on the counter across from the cash register with an unholy grin.

“Please, Leo, if you have any good left in your horrible personality, please hold whatever you want to say in until we get to Annabeth and Piper’s.” Percy pleaded, pulling himself up and stretching the kinks out of his spine. It popped multiple times and Percy groaned with relief.

Leo smirked. “As you wish, water boy.” He bowed low, and gestured for Percy to exit ahead of him. Percy took a moment to clock himself out, overwriting the time to be when he first entered the cupboard, before he grabbed his jacket from the back counter and undid his apron. Leo started snickering as they walked out the front door.

“Dude,” Percy complained.

Leo held up his hands, eyes alight with glee. “I’m not saying anything. Not a thing.”

Percy sighed. He’d spent the _two hours_ his soulmate – _soulmate!!! _– spent in the café panicking. How the hell did the man still look exactly the same as he had when Percy’d last bled out in his arms? It made no fucking sense, but the blond man obviously didn’t care for sense, considering he had _not changed at all_ since 1943.

Percy’s brain stuttered again as he remembered his last minutes as Lena Geoffrey, shepherding her students into the already crowded room that had been chosen for the Meet & Greet. The Howling Commandos had barely had time to introduce themselves and make their way through the rest of the opening remarks before a man a row behind Lena and her class stood up and started ranting about the war and how the Nazis had the right idea. He’d aimed at gun at one of her only Jewish students and Lena dove between the two just in time for a bullet to pierce her right lung instead of his forehead. A second bullet had ended up right in between the man’s eyeballs for his troubles.

The last moments of Lena Geoffrey’s life consisted of her students screaming in fear before the blond leader of the Howling Commandoes – _Captain America himself_ – had kneeled down in front of her. _“Ma’am, ma’am, can you hear me?”_ As it was, Lena could barely hear him over Levi’s wailing.

It took a couple more precious moments for Lena to realize that those were the words scrawled over her upper back. _“Oh,_” she’d slurred, disappointed once again. Her soulmate really was absolutely stunning this time. “_Thassa damn shame._”

Steve Roger’s eyes had widened in horror as her own eyes started to slip shut. _“Ma’am!” _He’d yelled, managing to sound more upset than her students as she died in his arms.

Percy jerked back to the present as Leo flicked him in the forehead. “Dude!” He snapped, indignant. Leo didn’t have to light his finger on fire. Percy rubbed at his stinging forehead with a surly glare aimed at the small Latino.

Leo shrugged, unrepentant. “We’re here, bro. You’ve been out of it since we got to the first stoplight.”

Percy looked past Leo to see the doorman for Piper and Annabeth’s building looking at him with some concern. He waved at Mr. Henricks with a small smile as they passed him and entered the lobby. Piper, Leo, and Annabeth had already gone over the physical details of Percy’s soulmate with Percy’s own unhelpful comments thrown in while he was trapped in the space under his mother’s café’s front counter.

Piper and Annabeth knew that his soulmate was tall, blond, built like a fucking brick wall, and extremely polite. He had blue eyes, a jawline sharp enough to fuck up a Giant, and a smile that could melt even Hera. None of that had helped the two girls pinpoint his identity.

Percy mostly wondered how Captain America had managed to survive crashing into the Arctic Ocean. It wasn’t like that was a thing most people could do.

Immediately after knocking on the door to the apartment, Percy was dragged inside by two sets of hands, one solidly tanned, and the other one light brown. Leo sauntered in behind him on his own, and kicked the door closed. As Percy stumbled into the living room, he noticed that almost every one of his friend’s was already there. _Great_, Percy thought, rolling his eyes to the sky. _Fucking great._

“He arrives,” Reyna said with a smirk, eyes darkly amused as she curled into Jason’s side on the couch. Nico and Will scooted over on the loveseat so Leo could smush himself in between them. Piper and Annabeth plopped into one of the armchairs and Percy fell into the second, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling instead of looking at Frank and Hazel, who were both grinning at him from their side of the couch beside Jason and Reyna.

“I feel like now is a perfect time to tell all of you that you suck.” Percy said in lieu of a greeting.

Hazel giggled. “We know, Percy. Now _spill_.” Frank snickered as his wife leaned forwards in interest as she spoke.

“Yeah,” Nico said, and Percy could fucking _hear_ the smug smirk on his face. “How’d you know tall and blond was your soulmate when you hid before the man could even look at you?” He heard the telltale smacking sound that indicated that Will had whacked him on the back of the head. Percy was pathetically grateful.

Percy tucked himself into the armchair and lifted his head to glare balefully at his friends. “I don’t even understand it yet.” He _did not whine_, even if the shit-eating grin on Jason and Frank’s faces said otherwise. “He looks the exact same!”

Will sat forward in interest to match Hazel, and Piper wiggled herself into a sitting position on Annabeth’s lap. “But wasn’t your last life in the forties?” The Native American asked, head tilted to the side in an obviously adorable way if Annabeth’s many quick kisses to her soulmate’s neck had anything to say about it.

“I know,” Percy groaned, and let his head thunk back against the padded chair. “My brain hurts.”

“That could just be because you kept slamming your head into the top of the cabinet, bro.” Leo piped up. “Ow! Will, what the hell, babe? Why do you slap Nico, but pinch me?”

“Moving on,” Annabeth said and cut Leo’s pouting off before he could progress to his puppy eyes. “We’ve all heard your stories about how you and your soulmate tragically died in each other’s arms immediately after meeting, so we know he can’t be an immortal. Nico, any clues?”

“It’s almost unheard of for a God to be soulmated to a Demigod, and its only ever happened after the Demigod ascended to Godhood themselves.” Nico shrugged. “And Percy’s as mortal as the rest of us, so..” He trailed off with a frown.

Will leaned back, ignoring Leo’s sad, beseeching eyes. “I’ve never heard of it either and I’ve spent a lot of time in the God’s infirmary. They tend to gossip like teenagers when they’re injured.”

The other Demigods looked stumped.

“Anything you haven’t told us yet, Jackson?” Reyna queried from where she now laid sprawled out across Jason’s lap instead of tucked under his arm. The Demigods turned to look at Percy as one as he rolled his head back and forth over the pillow.

“I can’t think of any important detail. I’ve already told you my name last life. If anything, that should have pulled up some details.”

The room froze as Annabeth let out a dramatic groan. “I’m a fucking dunce.” She said, sounding incredibly disappointed in herself. “Nico toss me Dedalus’ laptop please, it’s on the table behind you.”

Piper dutifully squirmed to the side until she perched on the one of the armrests as Annabeth opened the laptop and carefully typed ‘Lena Geoffrey 1943’ into the search bar. She scrolled for a couple seconds until – “Here’s a news article from the number one newspaper at the time,” the blonde announced as she clicked. “’_Firefight at Howling Commandoes Latest Fan Meet Results in 1 Dead_’,” she read out. Her eyes skimmed through the article, catching occasionally as her dyslexia caught up to her. “’_Schoolteacher Lena Geoffrey was shot and killed after she jumped in front of a bullet meant for one of her young students. Her heroic act saved the life of ten-year old Levi Saunders, but sent her to an early grave. Perhaps in reward for her actions, she spent her last seconds in the arms of none other than” –_ Annabeth gasped and her head snapped around to look at Percy, eyes incredulous. “Captain America is your _soulmate_?” She screeched.

The upstairs neighbor banged on the floor. “SHUT THE HELL UP! SOME OF US GOTTA WAKE UP AT 3 AM!”

The gathered Demigods took a moment out of their shock to simultaneously glower at the ceiling. “FUCK YOU MCCARTHY!” Piper yelled back.

“GO TO HELL!”

Moment over, everyone resumed staring at Percy, who shrank back slightly. “I thought I mentioned that?” He said, weakly.

Hazel appeared to have lost the ability to form words. Nobody else looked any better off.

Nico was, surprisingly, the first to regain coherent thought. “Dude,” he said with feeling, “Captain America is the only reason I’m not dead.”

Heads jerked to stare at Nico instead and he seemed to falter a bit. Leo kissed him on the cheek and made a prompting motion with his hands. Will debated with himself over whether he should pinch him or not for that. He decided not to, but did give him a warning elbow. Leo squeaked and Will clapped a hand over his mouth to keep him from complaining.

“It was right before Dad sent me and Bianca to the Lotus Hotel.” Percy looked down, regret tightening his mouth. “Shut up, Jackson. Anyways, some Nazis came ‘round to where we were hiding out with some of our aunt’s neighbors and shuttled the three of us to Auschwitz.” Hazel’s big gold eyes went even bigger with horror. The room was silent. McCarthy would be pleased. “We were only there for about a week or two before the Howling Commandos got us out. Bianca and I were specifically hauled out by Captain America himself. We were the only two people left alive in the gas chamber.” Nico went quiet, then he snorted. “I was only about six at the time, so I didn’t really understand what was going on. I remember I was really scared though, and I wouldn’t let him go, so he scooped up me ‘n Bianca and carried us out. After that he made sure we got back to our aunt’s neighbors, and a couple months after my seventh birthday Dad sent Alecto to take us to the hotel. Percy and Annabeth know the rest.” He nodded to the two Demigods in question.

The daughter of Annabeth looked contemplative and sad as she pulled her soulmate as close as she could with the laptop still open on her thighs. Percy’s face just looked unbearably soft.

Will tossed a throw pillow at him and he snapped out of it. “What?” He asked, shaking the hair out of his face. “My soulmate is a Good Guy. Can’t a man celebrate that around here?”

“Your soulmate looking the same now makes a shit ton more sense though, Percy.” Jason rolled his eyes at the confused look at the son of Poseidon sent him. “Dude, do you not watch the news?” The look Percy sent him was answer enough. “Captain America was found in _The Valkyrie_ like 2 years ago and SHIELD defrosted him. He’s part of The Avengers? Y’know, the superhero team?”

Percy’s eyes lit up with recognition. “They saved Paul’s life during the invasion!”

Reyna snorted. “They saved _all _our lives during the invasion, Jackson.” She twisted and somehow ended up spooning Jason, who didn’t look like he minded the new position. “Well, it was mostly Iron Man, I’ll admit.”

“That’s my boss!” Leo yelled.

Dust rained down from the ceiling as McCarthy slammed on his floor again.

“Okay, damn.” Frank said dryly. “Let’s go to Percy’s apartment.”

h-s-b-s

Steve loved his team. He really did. But from Tony’s horrible puns to Clint’s tendency to perch on _anything_, they managed to get on what seemed like every last one of his nerves. But somehow that never stopped him from going along with them on outings. Even when every single one ended in disaster.

For example, just last week Nat had asked him if he wanted to check out a new café that Tony had been heaping praises on for the last couple of months. He’d agreed almost instantly, and it was only partially because Bruce was one more Mario Kart loss away from Hulking out. Mostly it was because he was a naïve little fool who didn’t know when to quit. From the walk over, where they were hounded by paparazzi (which made Steve realize that the trip was part of Nat’s Big Plan to make the Avengers appear like relatable public figures) to when they finally entered the café and Steve got a good peripheral view of the man behind the counter dropping to the floor when he saw who they were. Judging on how Steve couldn’t see him when they stepped up to order, he had to figure that the man had lodged himself in the cabinet.

His theory was proven right where there was a loud sneeze from just in front of and below him, and then a loud _thunk_, and a man cackling from the kitchen area.

Steve really did love his team, and he knew that there would always be people against a group of well-trained individuals who were allowed almost free reign over places that found themselves in a tight spot. He tried not to let it affect him, and most of the time he thought he succeeded rather well. But sometimes. Sometimes he couldn’t help but remember just how much people would hate those groups.

Whether he or his soulmate was a member didn’t matter.

In one of their first lives, Steve had been a Spartan, fighting against warring city-states. He couldn’t remember which ones, but they’d teamed up to attack the greater nation. Steve had been given command of a group of accomplished soldiers. Steve, then named Septimius, and his men had won countless battles and gained a good amount of land from pushing back the invading nation. They’d made a camp for the night when citizens angry with the change in their government had lit up the house Septimius’ people had decided to bed down in for the night.

The mob stayed outside the young to kill any Spartan who left its boundaries until a young man snuck through them and into the house. He’d led them through a hidden tunnel underneath a bed in the smallest room. The house belonged to his uncle, he explained, and that room was his youngest cousin’s. He received a spear through his heart for his trouble in getting them out, after one of Septimius’ newest soldier’s panicked upon seeing the ‘enemy’ inside their ranks.

In another life, his soulmate was the daughter of a nobleman in Revolutionary France. The townspeople were fond of Adelaide, as she always snuck them as many supplies as she could get away with, and sometimes more if she knew they were struggling. Steve (Lucien) and his mother had just moved onto her father’s land the first time they met. She noticed his cough and offered to go and fetch him some herbs that could help ease his breathing. Steve never got to say anything back, as angry revolutionaries dragged her off to the guillotine as soon as she stepped foot in her father’s manor.

Steve shook his head to reorient himself as Tony kept rambling as he waited for his coffee to finish brewing. His newest batch of coffee, at least. Steve had watched Tony mainline two pots of coffee so far this morning, and knew he would drink at least one more before heading down to the workshop for the day if he had no meetings.

“-so you better buck up, Cap. Put your game face on. It’s time for our monthly ‘Fuck you, you suck’ meeting with the good spy.”

Steve blinked. Huh. He looked down at the StarkPad resting on the counter in front of him. _October 15, 2014. _So it was.

Nat chose that moment to slink into the kitchen, silent except for the jangling of the bell on the necklace Tony had jokingly given her one day about a year ago. Nat had told him once, in confidence, that it was her favorite piece of jewelry she’d ever owned. Steve was prepared to take that secret to the grave with him. Nat would make sure he died if he didn’t, anyways.

An hour and a half later, and the team was assembled in the kitchen they’d decided was wholly _theirs_, in various states of consciousness. Clint had staggered into the kitchen, half dead to the world, before scaling the fridge, perching on the top, and promptly passing out. Bruce had come in fully awake, but slowly fell asleep in his eggs as the minutes dragged on. Tony was wide eyed and manic as he chatted to Thor, who was sipping on a goblet of apple juice. Nat was sitting on a stool next to him, finishing her last piece of bacon.

Steve sighed and stood. He _did _love his team, as ridiculous and stupid as they all could be. Natasha was essentially his right-hand woman, and had an extremely dry sense of humor that she used against Steve at all the worst times. Clint was an extremely loyal friend who tended to instigate prank wars with Tony, but always had time to schedule ‘Family Nights’ for the team. Bruce was the quietest, but he made up for it with both his fatal one-liners and the knowledge that he’d be there if they needed anything. Thor was a little hard to understand sometimes, but he would never let any of his friends stew too long in unhappy memories or frustrated silences. And Tony had proven time and time again that he would do anything for any of the Avengers or anyone an Avenger considered a friend, in addition to working tirelessly to come up with new and improved ways to keep all of them safe.

“Alright Avengers,” he said with a small, private smile. “Assemble. Let’s go. I want us all loaded and ready to go in the Quinjet in five minutes.” He shook Bruce’s shoulder gently as he passed. The man snorted and jerked up, a piece of egg flying up his left nostril. The noise he made in response to that was inhuman, and Steve sighed again as the Hulk seemed to explode out of Bruce’s skin.

Tony choked on his coffee and stared at the spot where Bruce had stood with raw, undiluted glee. “Did anyone else see that?” He asked, voice more joyous than it had any right to be. “JARVIS please save that to the ‘Pick Me Up’ file. _Please._”

“As you wish, sir. Would you like it to play before or after the video of Mr. Rogers renouncing America and everything it stands for as a ‘capitalist hellscape’ after losing yet another game of Monopoly?”

Tony paused with his coffee mug halfway up to his mouth. “After, please, J,” he said with what could only be described as a demonic grin.

Steve sighed.

h-s-b-s

After Bruce had returned to being Bruce and carefully locked himself in the cockpit of the Quinjet with Clint, Steve allowed himself to relax on the comfortable seats on the side of the ‘jet. Nat sat herself down next to him with a thermos of jasmine tea. She passed him a matching thermos with an iced coffee. Her smirk was plainly visible as she quipped, “An Iced Americano for the iced Americano.”

Steve rolled his eyes and cursed the day he agreed to go to _The Ocean Floor_ with her. Other than the barista who took peek-a-boo to a new level, Nat had found her new favorite topic to tease him on. She’d partially moved on from jokes about his age, and had found new joy in jokes about him being frozen. Thinking about that only brought him back to the memory of the barista shutting himself in a small cabinet instead of having to take their order and Steve sighed again.

He knew that the Avengers did good work, and so did the majority of America, but there would always be people who disagreed with that, and as much as it pained him, he couldn’t fault them. The Avengers caused property destruction wherever they did battle, and while it was mostly through no fault of their own, some people just couldn’t help but hold it against them. Or maybe the barista had been a family member of someone the Avengers had failed to save. Either way, they ended up in the same situation.

Nat let out a noisy sigh through her nose and Tony glanced up from his tablet to see an intense frown mar Steve’s face. “What’s the matter, mon Captain?” Tony asked, fingers flicking over his screen even as he darted another glance up at Steve’s face.

“Nothing,” Steve said and shook his head. It wasn’t anything he needed to worry his team about, anyways. Just unpleasant memories from his past.

Tony’s fingers stilled and he looked up at Nat. They had a silent conversation that consisted of subtle twitching of their facial muscles, and Steve was pleased to say he understood a good quarter of it. The part he managed to catch was about whether or not they should press him about it. After that they delved into pros and cons, and then they lost him. His only reassurance was that Thor looked equally as lost when he caught the Demigod’s eye.

It seemed there was a language Thor’s Allspeak didn’t extend to, after all.

Steve tried to not be so pleased about that, but he was pretty sure the smile he could feel forming on his face meant he failed.

Tony and Nat wrapped up their conversation with a unison sigh, and they turned to face Steve. Their eyebrows were exceedingly judging. “We’ll finish this later. Clint’s landing us on the Helicarrier.”

Steve knew for a fact that he would do anything to get out of that conversation. Hopefully Fury would have a mission for them in between criticizing their latest battle and their PR coverage since.

h-s-b-s

Percy woke up in a place he was almost entirely sure he did not go to sleep. He couldn’t be completely sure, though, because the last hours before he managed to pass out were pretty blurry. Leo’s younger brother Wright had turned 21 yesterday, and the of-age Demigods went balls to the fucking walls_. _Percy’s memory went unfocused after his twentieth consecutive shot of Jägermeister, and almost completely blank after he chugged an entire bottle of Crown Royale to the drunken cheers of his friends.

_Fuck_, his head hurt. Why had he ever befriended those people? Don’t get him wrong, he loved them, but they were fucking idiots. Every last one of them. Piper whined from above him, and he belatedly realized she was the reason why it was difficult to breathe. “Why am I alive?” She whispered.

Nico hissed from somewhere on the floor to their left. “Too loud. Speak more – I’ll kill.”

The room went blessedly silent again before – “Oh fuck,” Frank groaned, and made a break for the bathroom. Percy threw up a barrier at the last moment and Piper went loose again when she realized she couldn’t hear him throwing up.

There were a few mumbled variations of “Thanks, Percy” from across the room and they laid in comfortable (albeit still painfully hungover) silence.

An hour and a half later, and they were all somewhat closer to being functioning members of society once more. They were all still wearing their party clothes from last night, but quiet noise no longer made their brains tear painfully into two. Will stumbled towards the door and muttered a sentence that the rest of them vaguely understood as meaning that he was going to go get his emergency stash of ambrosia and nectar to fix them the rest of the way when there was a series of aggressive knocks.

“Rise and shine, bitches!” Clarisse’s voice rang loudly though the door. By the scattered groans across the room Percy knew they all felt it was too loud. “Get up and get sober, assholes, we’ve got a problem.” Piper untangled herself from Percy and blearily looked around the room for her girlfriend, who was spooning Leo on the floor by the fountain.

Percy stood up unsteadily and tripped his way across his room to the bathroom. He closed his eyes and opened the medicine cabinet, pulling out a Ziploc baggie full of ambrosia squares. “I got it, Will, stay down.” Will made an incoherent noise of gratefulness as Nico dragged him back to the floor and pulled Leo back to him with a spare shadow. It was a testament to how out of it Leo was that he didn’t complain, and to how absolutely fucked up they’d gotten last night to how Annabeth only wrapped her limbs tighter around the Latino as he slid across the floor.

Nico made a disgruntled noise when he reached out and found her still attached to his soulmate’s back, and Piper reached down to pull her off at the same time Nico pushed her away. “Mine,” Piper grumbled as Annabeth crawled onto the bed with her and they immediately wrapped themselves around each other.

“Get up, dicks, or I’m putting the ambrosia back.” Percy threatened, though much of the sting was taken out by the way he stumbled and fell to the ground beside the bed he was aiming for. Jason wordlessly summoned two ambrosia squares that Reyna snatched from his hand after it dropped uselessly to the floor with its prize. Frank appeared out of nowhere from behind Percy and grabbed two squares for him and Hazel. Will reached an arm out and Percy blindly tossed him three squares. Annabeth made a demanding noise and Percy pushed himself up to place a square onto her tongue when she stuck it out.

Ten minutes after that and the Demigods were off to shower and change. There was apparently a Kraken terrorizing the Californian coast. Who’d be able to deal with a threat like that other than the Heroes of Olympus?

h-s-b-s

Steve shifted uncertainly in the chair he’d been provided by Olympians. He was still having trouble wrapping his brain around the whole thing. They’d been in the middle of their monthly dressing down when Fury had scowled and brought up their biggest problem – they were only six people trying to defend the whole of the Earth. Finding more people to round out the original Avengers team ‘isn’t an easy goddamn task in the first place, much fucking less when you’ve gotta work around motherfucking egos’.

Steve had been less than impressed with the jab at Tony and nodded at Bruce, who proceeded to make a snide comment about how maybe Fury was missing something with only half the view of everyone else. Fury had taken offense, and they’d derailed for a bit until Maria managed to call them all back to attention.

They’d been listening to Fury rant about potential Avengers candidates for about ten minutes when Thor had lit up.

“A-ha!” He’d exclaimed upon seeing the picture of a man in his thirties with yellow-blond hair and incredibly blue eyes. “You’ve discovered the Greeks! I had almost forgotten about my shield-brothers and sisters of a time long past. Asking them to once against fight for the cause is indeed a thrilling idea, oh Furious One. The Greeks fight with reckless abandon, and are much fun to call to arms, unlike their Roman brothers and sisters. I shall request a meeting with the Olympian’s and their children at once!”

And with that strange little speech, Thor had flown off the Helicarrier back to New York. Fury had stared at the doorway Thor had burst through with no small measure of annoyance. “What the fuck did he just say?” Fury snapped.

The team gave a unanimous shrug. “He recognized the man on the screen. He’s apparently somehow related to the Greek pantheon, who exist now.” Nat recapped, her tone dull. Nobody enjoyed these meetings with Fury.

Thirteen more minutes of Fury chewing them out about anything and everything he could think of, and Steve was ready to gouge his ear drums out with a tuning fork. In an incredible twist of fate, the Avengers alarm started blaring through the conference room. Steve sat up straighter as footage began playing on the screen behind Fury.

Tony and Clint’s eyebrows raised in surprise as they took in the information.

“Damn,” Bruce said, reluctantly impressed.

“That’s a big one,” Nat agreed, head tilted.

“Alright, Avengers.” Steve said, voice filled with no small amount of relief. “Assemble.”

Thor was still off finding his “Greek shield brothers and sisters”, but the rest of them team suited up and loaded back on the Quinjet in a race to California, where, apparently, there was a Kraken terrorizing San Francisco. Who’d be able to deal with a threat like that other than the Avengers?

h-s-b-s

Percy had never been more grateful for the healing powers of ambrosia than he was in that moment. There was a fucking honest to the Gods _Kraken_ attacking San Francisco. Percy felt the last shreds of his hangover snap as Blackjack zoomed in closer. It was fucking _huge. _Percy wouldn’t have been the least bit shocked if it turned out to be Godzilla’s birth mother. _Shit_.

“Nico, Hazel, Piper – you’re on evacuation duty with whatever Romans have wandered here out of Camp Jupiter.” Three chariots swung off to the sides and down to the streets as the three heeded his order. “Jason and Leo – you’re the resident eyes in the sky, I want you watching and reporting every move this bitch makes. Jason, you’re also in charge of warding off any lightning strikes it throws.” Leo (and Festus) took off towards the sky above the Kraken and started to circle. Jason took a lower position in the sky as he got himself ready to change the course of the lightning the Kraken would summon. “Will, take care of the injured, and be ready to blind when I say ‘go’.” Will nodded as he took his chariot – loaded with medical supplies – and headed to the ground after Nico, Hazel, and Piper. “Frank, Reyna, Annabeth – you’re with me.”

Annabeth and Reyna were perched on Fawnhill and Gindler – two Pegasi who were relatively new to Camp Half-Blood, but took to their positions with unmatched enthusiasm. It was pure fucking luck that Thor had reached them when they got the news of the attack. After all, the Avengers could deal with aliens and killer robots, but they weren’t exactly in possession of any Celestial Bronze, Imperial Gold, or Stygian Iron weapons, were they?

“Hey, Beth,” Percy said suddenly, eyes on the Kraken as it started to fling lightning towards the coastline. “Does your dad still have that airplane?”

h-s-b-s

Steve glanced over at Clint when he heard the archer swear from the pilot seat just moments after Nat had groaned very loudly. “Hawkeye, what’s the problem?”

Clint muttered curses in various different languages for a few seconds before answering. “There’s another goddamn plane on the radar.” Steve wondered if this was all just a ridiculous dream.

Iron Man stopped dead halfway to the cockpit on his way to find out himself. “There’s a fucking what?” Tony’s voice sounded incredulous.

“There’s another plane!” Clint snarled. “Heading straight for the fucking _Kraken_. I don’t want to know what the hell is going on in that pilot’s mind. It’s not anything sent by the military – Fury told us they’re staying out of it except to help us with evacuation.”

Iron Man dropped out of the Quinjet to get a better read on the incoming aircraft. “_It’s a fucking Sopwith Camel_.” Tony said, so horrified his voice was almost completely emotionless. Steve debated on why he bothered most days.

“Shield-brothers!” Thor’s booming voice came through as the Quinjet pulled closer to the coastline. “This is not a fight for mortals. Return to the Helicarrier and allow my Greek and Roman shield-brothers to take down the Kraken. Your weapons cannot harm it. _They_ are more than worthy of the challenge.” A flash of lightning punctuated his message. Steve wished he could wake up.

“What are you talking about, Thor?” He asked, hefting up his shield and getting ready to jump from the plane.

“Our foe is a terrible beast from Greek mythology. Thusly, it cannot be fought with mortal weaponry. The only weapons capable of wounding the beast are outside humanity’s current reach, though I am certain the Man of Iron would be able to craft them if he held the materials necessary.” Steve watched as what looked like a giant bronze dragon dive bombed the Kraken to get it to turn away from the coastline.

Tony scoffed over the comms. “There’s no way in hell this ugly son of a bitch won’t feel a repulsor beam, Point Break.”

“He would feel it, indeed,” Thor agreed. “But it would be a mere tickle. Perhaps if your armor were made of Imperial Gold, the repulsor would wound the Kraken, but in its current form it is quite incapable of causing injury.”

“If our weapons can’t do damage, Thor, point us to where we can get some that does.” Black Widow snapped, twisting around in the copilot’s seat to watch as the Sopwith Camel flew underneath them before looping back around to shoot a round of bullets at the Kraken.

“Holy _shit_!” Clint yelled and pulled up on the jet’s controls. “Was that a _fucking_ _flying horse?_”

“Ah!” Thor boomed again. “You have met the Son of Jack! He is a brave commander and one I am pleased to serve under. Perseus, Son of Jack, is the leader in charge of this battle. The Demigods here are under his command. If you wish to stay involved in this fight, allow one of his trusted lieutenants to board the Quinjet. She will lead you to the Roman Demigod’s camp, and their armory!”

“What the _fuck_,” Clint whispered. “What the actual fuck.” He left the Quinjet hovering in one spot for a moment too long as a brutal flash of lightning came headed their way. A blond man who most definitely _wasn’t Thor_ intercepted the blast and turned to stare at them with judging eyebrows. He made a ‘get on with it’ gesture with his hands, which were sparking with the lightning bolt he’d just caught, before he turned and flung it back, flying after it and dodging the Kraken’s retaliations.

“Tell her to come on board, then.” Steve said, feeling more lost than he had when he realized that he was 70 years in the future, and everything he knew was gone.

Moments later, a light gray horse with wings (_Pegasus?_) darted into the Quinjet from the open hatch on the bottom. The woman sitting on the horse wore old fashioned, golden armor complete with a helmet like the ones Steve had worn when he was General Septimius of the Spartans.

The horse landed with a clang on the floor of the Quinjet, and Clint kept shaking his head and repeating “what the fuck” like a mantra. “If you would turn this jet to the left and fly down you’ll pass through the protective wards of Camp Jupiter.” The woman said calmly, dropping down from the Pegasus. “Normally we would not allow you through, but battles against ancient monsters require modern solutions. I can take you to the armory and get you suited for battle before long.”

Steve nodded, blank. “You heard her, Hawkeye, move left.”

h-s-b-s

Percy had one eye on the Kraken, which was being very effectively corralled by his friends and the God of Thunder (as well as Annabeth’s dad in his plane), and one eye on the jet that apparently had the Avengers (and Reyna) onboard as it rose above the protections of Camp Jupiter. They’d decided that Hawkeye would be taken to a good vantage point by Iron Man and work in tandem with Frank to bombard the Kraken with trick arrows, the Black Widow would be dropped off by Nico, Hazel, and Piper to assist them with fighting the monsters on the ground that the Kraken’s power had summoned. Jason and Thor were already working well together to keep the lightning in their own hands. Hulk decided to stay as Bruce Banner and help out in the infirmary. Iron Man and Leo were teaming up to push the Kraken further back into the ocean (and for fuck’s sake, if Percy had to hear _“Hell yeah, that’s my fucking boss!”_ one more time before the fight was over, he was gonna drown the son of Hephaestus and live the rest of his life with zero remorse for his actions).

The one Avenger who Percy’s brain kept getting stuck on was, naturally, good ol’ Captain America, who would also be joining the ground troops with a fancy new Imperial Gold shield. Percy hovered motionless on Blackjack for almost a solid minute after seeing Captain America literally one punch a Gorgon into dust with the shield before Annabeth and Reyna’s yelling pulled him back into the fight.

“_Goddamn_,” Percy muttered, refocusing. It only took him a second to start criticizing his team. “Frank, what the hell are you doing? How hard is it to aim for the eye – there’s two and they’re fucking _huge._”

Frank snapped off another arrow in response, flipping Percy off when it hit bullseye. Unexpected side effect, though, was the shockwave of lightning that exploded from it when the arrow landed.

“Oh damn, that had unforeseen consequences,” Percy said, wincing as Jason momentarily went into free fall before catching himself.

“If you’re gonna do that again, Frank, please warn me.” Jason asked, voice strained.

Frank apologized profusely as Percy pointed Blackjack towards a group of Dracaenae.

Percy pulled Blackjack up to a better vantage point when he heard Hazel shout out in pain over their comms. “Hazel, where are you?”

“Well, Perce,” Hazel said, tone falsely light and breezy. “You see that giant swarm of Empousai? I’m in the middle.”

Percy nudged Blackjack towards the ground and they hurtled in Hazel’s direction. “When I say jump you fucking do it, Levesque!”

“Aye, aye, Captain Percy,” Hazel’s voice was drowned out by the dying screech of a monster, and then disgusting spluttering noises. “There’s monster dust in my – go to Tartarus you stupid bitch!”

Percy and Blackjack drew closer and closer to the mass of furious monsters before Percy leaned halfway off of his Pegasus and flung his hand out. “_Jump!”_

Hazel used the Empousa closest to her as a springboard and leapt at Percy as he passed by her, snatching his hand out of the air and swinging herself up onto Blackjack’s back. “Drop me over by Nico, he looks like he could use a hand.”

h-s-b-s

Steve was watching out for Demigods he was fighting alongside as he smashed the new shield into any monster’s face he could reach.

“Don’t go for the mercy shot, Captain,” Reyna had advised when she’d tossed him the shield. “Monsters will just turn to dust and respawn in Tartarus. After they find the Doors of Death they’ll be back up in the mortal world to hunt down Demigods for sport. If you think you can make one second guess their decision to do so, you better take it.”

Steve took her words to heart. He was learning the weak points of certain monsters as he went. The things with one donkey leg and flaming hair reacted unfavorably to a shield to the face, the werewolves weren’t fans of a hard uppercut, and the snake women were very much against a quick three-part jab sequence that severed their two tails from their body and then their body from their head.

A sharp yell of pain to his left caught his attention as he smashed his shield covered fist into one of the donkey women. Where previously he’d had a clear line of sight to the shortest Demigod on the ground with him – a young-looking black woman who kept swearing at monsters with what sounded like forties slang – there was now a mass of the donkey woman. Steve swore under his breath and turned in that direction. His eyes moved over the battlefield and caught on a glinting black smudge against the sky that resolved into yet another Demigod on top of a winged horse. Could this be the Perseus guy that Thor had said was leading the Demigods?

“_When I say jump you fucking do it, Levesque!” _The man snapped as he rapidly drew closer to the last place Steve had seen the woman. A moment later and he slid sideways – almost completely off – the horse and flung down a hand. “_Jump!”_ Levesque leapt into his field of vision a moment later as she leapt off of one of the donkey women and grabbed the man’s hand in midair.

“_Drop me over by Nico,” _she told the man who’d plucked her out of thin air.

Steve was impressed. Most people trying that sort of maneuver would have at least torn their arms out of their sockets, but both the man and Levesque were A-Okay. Acting on impulse, Steve sent the man his snappiest salute when he turned back in Steve’s direction to head back up to his vantage point. The shocked laugh it got him was somehow more than worth the cut he got on his left arm from one of the snake women in his moment of distraction.

h-s-b-s

Percy was supposed to be in battle mode, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Steve and his position on the field. _Focus on your own team, Jackson. Steve’s the goddamn leader of his own goddamn team and he can take care of his goddamn _self! Percy’s eyes followed the Kraken as Jason flung it back a good five more feet from the coast line. As long as Thor and Jason could keep it distracted, Percy could get his ground team to get Will into position to temporarily blind it. It’s momentary confusion would be all Percy and Frank would need to get close enough to ram the longest spear they had through its other eye.

Frederick Chase flew beneath Percy and carefully took aim at some monsters that had no Demigods or Avengers near them, clearing a path for Will. “Almost,” Percy muttered, eyes tracking Will as he ran through the gap that Annabeth’s dad had made for him.

“_Almost what, Commander Jackson?_” An unfamiliar voice called in his ear. Percy jerked Blackjack up a good 10 feet before he realized someone had hacked into their comms system.

“Who the hell are you?” Percy snapped, soothing Blackjack and summoning some water shields to keep the worst of the monsters off of Will’s back.

“_You know who I am,_” the man said, pleased.

“No, I fucking don’t. You can either enlighten me or get the hell off my comms.” Percy and Blackjack dove to the ground to cover Piper as she ducked out of the way from a Dracanae’s poisoned claws. One swipe of Riptide and the snake exploded into dust. Blackjack surged upwards and back as a nearby werewolf lunged at them with a howl.

“_Is he serious? Cap, you’re closest to him, is he for real?”_

Percy rolled his eyes and stabbed forwards, jabbing an Empousa in the back of the head. He gave a wide swing to the right, easily slicing the heads off of two Dracanae who were trying to rush Nico.

“_Cut the chatter Iron Man, and focus on your job.”_

“_I can chatter on comms and distract the Kraken at the same time, Capsicle. Just say the word and I’ll unleash my full power on this sea monster.”_

Percy felt like rubbing his temples as he rushed Blackjack forwards to Will’s position. Blackjack dropped straight down and Percy grabbed a hold of the back of Will’s shirt and hauled him up on the back of the black Pegasus. “We gotta get you to a good vantage point for the blast, Solace. Frank, you see any place close enough to the Kraken for Will to get his shot off, but out of the way of fighting?”

Frank switched into a falcon in the middle of his sentence to avoid a shower of sparks. “Watch where you’re redirecting that shit, Grace!” He snapped once he’d reverted to human form. “And yeah, there’s a nice, tall building behind the wrecked beach house three buildings away from where I am – to the right.”

Percy urged Blackjack upwards, ignoring the steady stream of chatter coming from Iron Man as he tried to crack Percy’s code. “When I drop you, Solace, you go fetal, understood?”

Will nodded in front of him as he eyed the pool Percy was going to send him falling into. He’d make it work.

h-s-b-s

Steve stared in shock as Jackson’s Pegasus flipped itself over as it passed over a ten-story apartment complex and a small figure with blond hair went dropping off. It looked like it was going to crack its skill open on the roof of the building, but Steve saw the water splash up over the balconies and let out a relieved breath of air.

“_Get in position, Solace. Demigods and whoever else is on my fucking comm line, get ready to cover your eyes unless you want to see a star explode at close range._”

Jackson was hurtling closer and closer to the Kraken. He and his Pegasus were dropping lower towards the Kraken’s level. Steve saw him drop the sword he’d been fighting with and catch a spear that had been thrown at him, and then – “_GO!”_ Time felt as though it was moving in slow motion as Jackson stood himself on one end of the spear and pointed it directly at the beast’s remaining eye.

Steve instinctively threw his arm with the shield strapped on over his head and saw the world be painted a bright, blinding white in his peripherals. He squeezed his eyes shut and felt rather than saw the monsters around him stumble and fall back, unable to make a sound as they lost one of their senses. Horrible lightning crackled out from the Kraken in every direction. Steve could only assume – hope, really – that Jackson had been successful.

h-s-b-s

Percy dropped Riptide to snatch the spear Frank had thrown at him in the same moment and gave Blackjack one last silent command. He loved that damn Pegasus. They’d been working in sync for so many years that Percy didn’t even have to tell him what he needed him to do anymore. And Blackjack was way past questioning Percy’s orders. He knew Percy always did what needed to be done.

Sure, Jason could conduct lightning, but too much could overload his body and fry him. Percy wasn’t going to let the other Demigod do something like that for him. And hey, it looked like Percy had a reason to be grateful for his cabinet-cation last week after all. He’d stopped himself from saying anything to Steve, which meant that this stunt _probably _wouldn’t kill him.

Percy dropped from the sky. “GO!” He yelled, settling his boots down on the end of the spear and calculating the distance between himself and the Kraken’s remaining eye. If Percy could time this right, the lightning might not even touch him at all. He just had to have the water ready to pull him under.

Percy closed his eyes right as the world went supernova around him and let go of the spear. Two tendrils of water wrapped themselves around his ankles and he was dragged unceremoniously underneath the waves. He sunk further and further into the ocean and opened his eyes to see the aftereffects of his handiwork. The sky above the waves was a stark white due to the lightning that’d been flung in every direction when the Kraken’s scales were blown off.

Percy didn’t have any time to try and escape the lightning headed at him. A thick, bright blue bolt slammed into his chest and blasted his limp body back through the ocean waves into a depth of the ocean that no supernova could penetrate.

h-s-b-s

Steve blinked away the aftereffects of whatever the hell that Solace Demigod had done and shook his head to try to get rid of the ringing from the cacophonous explosion of the Kraken’s body. The world shifted under his feet and Steve stumbled right into Natasha.

The red headed spy instantly put her hands on Steve’s shoulders and pushed him down to his knees. “Don’t try to stand,” he saw her lips move as she dropped in front of him. “Earthquake.”

Steve squinted in the direction he’d last seen Jackson falling. Where had the commanding Demigod gone?

There was a faint yelling noise coming from somewhere to his left. A young blonde woman was bolting down the road that would connect them to the beachfront. There was a nasty cut on her stomach, and she looked like she was crying.

Steve felt himself shaking. He felt like he’d lost something important, and he couldn’t get his brain to focus enough to put it together. He moved his arm up to remove the shield and felt a slow, burning pain make its way up his arm from a small scratch on his left bicep. Steve was almost completely sure that he wasn’t supposed to be bleeding green.

“Captain!” Someone screamed, faint, before he closed his eyes and fell forwards into Natasha.

h-s-b-s

Percy woke up to something stroking his hair and quietly singing a lovely song about the gentle crash of waves on the hardy shore managing to carve its own place in the world.

Percy blinked his eyes open, half expecting to have passed out at the front counter of _The Ocean Floor_ while in the middle of closing for the night again. Somehow, his mom knew every time it was going to happen, and managed to show up to finish his closing duties before shepherding him up the spiral stairs and to bed. The rest of him was expecting to wake up in an infirmary at the very least, with how his body was aching with pain.

“Are you awake, young sea lord?” Three voices chorused at once, and Percy blinked up to see one nymph leaning over his face, eyes bright with concern. Percy turned his head around to look for the other two nymphs and frowned, slow, when he realized there was only the one above him.

“Hi?” Percy said uncertainly. “Can you tell me where I am? And who you are?”

“My name is Dierdred, young sea lord, and I am the nymph of the Bermuda Triangle. The current pulled you a long way from where you were first incapacitated. You did battle with the Kraken, monster of the Blackest Depths, yes?”

Percy nodded, confused. He remembered falling, holding onto something, letting go, the safety of the waves cocooning him, unexpected pain, and then nothing.

Dierdred swam a bit closer to Percy, her funny three-tone voice ringing in the silence of the waves around them. “I was asked by Lord Poseidon to return you to your people. You were much too close to the Kraken when it was bested – lightning entered the sea and slammed into you. The water and I both did what we could to tend to your wounds, but there are some things that only a Healer can fix.” She straightened, and held out a hand to help Percy up.

The current pulled teasingly at his hair as he was both pulled up by Dierdred and pushed up by the water at his back. “Thank you?” He said, uncertain. “Thank you.” He repeated, blushing at the raised eyebrow the sea nymph sent at him.

Dierdred smiled, showcasing a set of brilliant pearly white teeth and matching dimples. “It was my pleasure, young sea lord. If you will excuse me, I must tend to the kelp gardens.”

Percy nodded awkwardly as she bowed to him before swimming off. “Alright, I’m in the Bermuda triangle. Cool. How the hell do I get out of it?”

h-s-b-s

Steve was sitting ramrod straight in his chair in the “Allies Room”, as their guide, Lady Athena, had called it. The Goddess was now sitting with her daughter, Annabeth, and her daughter’s soulmate, Piper. Annabeth still looked distressed, though she had calmed down considerably since Lord Hades had assured her that Perseus had not “entered his kingdom yet”.

The other Demigods were clustered together around a small circular table while their group’s medic healed their wounds from the battle against the Kraken. Steve and his team had already made a small pitstop in the Olympian infirmary and been patched up by Lord Apollo as much as they could be without any ambrosia or nectar, which would apparently cause anyone not closely related to the Gods (or Gods themselves) to spontaneously combust.

Nat was chatting about strategies with Lady Athena and Annabeth. The redhead kept trying to rope him into the conversation because she knew how much he loved debating battle strategies, but he was both still woozy from the poison that had infected him earlier, and suffering from a powerful feeling of something being completely _wrong_.

It wasn’t about the fact that the Greek and Roman mythologies were true, either. Don’t get him wrong, it was a little bit much to acclimatize to, but he’d managed to get used to living 70 years in the future. He could handle some Gods and Goddesses being proven real.

Steve wasn’t exactly sure why he was feeling so tense and upset. His teammates were all safe, sitting around a large rectangular table and shooting the shit with each other, and occasionally one of the Demigods would join in. There was just something in his gut that said that there was something – someone? – missing from the scene, and it was enough to make him feel sick. The worst part about it was that he had no clue how he was supposed to fix it.

Bruce kicked him from underneath the table, eyebrows drawn together in concern. The Romans didn’t think that the battle would require the aid of the Hulk, so they’d allowed him to remain in their camp while the rest of the Avengers grabbed the weapons they would need. They’d also allowed him to work in their infirmary while the battle raged to help distract him.

_“Not that kind of doctor my fine ass,”_ Tony had muttered, but with a grin to soften his words.

Steve tried to send Bruce a reassuring smile, but was pretty sure he’d just ended up grimacing as Bruce’s face grew more worried. The scientist elbowed Tony none too gently and nodded his head in Steve’s direction. Tony got Natasha’s attention, and the spy excused herself from her conversation to scoot closer to Steve’s chair as Tony slid across the table to sit on the edge in front of Steve.

“So, it’s time for that conversation,” Tony said brightly, kicking his feet.

Steve frowned.

Nat narrowed her eyes at him. “Steven.” She said, and Steve ducked his head.

“This is unrelated,” he said, displeased. He’d almost forgotten about the café incident. He rubbed his hand along his right thigh to distract himself. “_Sorry about before, I may have panicked a little when I saw you looking the exact same as last life.” _

Nat and Tony had another silent conversation, and Steve’s displeasure grew when he realized he had no clue what they were talking about now. Natasha turned back to Steve first.

“Earlier it was because of the barista at _The Ocean Floor_. What is it now?” Steve didn’t even wonder how Natasha knew why he’d been upset. He was almost convinced that she just knew everything.

Tony’s nose wrinkled in annoyed confusion. “_The Ocean Floor_? What did the baristas do there? They’re all extremely polite.”

Nat sighed, and nudged Steve with her shoulder. “One of them took one glance at us and dropped to the floor to shove himself in a cupboard. Steve’s been beating himself up about it for a week.”

Tony cocked his head. “We’re talking about the same café, right? I can’t think of a single barista who would do that. They’ve got customer service coming out of their asses.”

“Black hair, green eyes, dimples, a jawline to kill for-”

“Are you talking about Percy?” A woman’s voice came from Steve’s right and he turned to see the group of demigods all staring at him, Nat, and Tony. The woman who had spoken was the one who used forties slang, she’d introduced herself as Hazel during ‘icebreakers’ and told them that she’d actually died but that her brother, Nico, had brought her back when Thanatos was ‘undisposed’. Steve didn’t really want to know the rest of that story. He’d had enough of a time listening to the story Nico told about how Steve had saved both him and his older sister from a gas chamber at Auschwitz.

“He works at the Ocean Floor?” Nat asked.

“Basically all of us do, from time to time. Percy’s the owner, though, and you pretty much described him down to a tee.” There was a new woman speaking – Piper, if he remembered correctly. She was smirking in the way that Clint and Tony did when they were up to something.

“Would you, I don’t know,” Tony shrugged lazily, still kicking his feet, “happen to know why he shoved himself underneath the counter.”

Nico grinned, dark eyes flashing with amusement. “Oh yeah, we all do. It was a very interesting story.”

Nat raised an eyebrow when Nico didn’t offer up anything else. “And?” She asked dryly.

“Oh, sorry, it’s not mine to share.”

Steve knew his face had turned extremely unamused by the way Tony started to snicker. “Any stories you _can_ tell?”

Hazel brightened. “About Percy or in general?”

Nat cocked her head to the side. “Hmm.”

Hazel’s eyes slid over to the redhead and narrowed. “Hmm.” She said back.

Nat gave a slow grin. “That is, without a doubt, the best news I’ve had all year.”

The rest of the Demigods looked a little shocked and confused. “How the hell?” The lightning one – Jason – muttered under his breath. His soulmate just smirked and leaned against him.

“Who runs the world, Jason?”

“Ooh, I know this one! Pick me Reyna, pick me!” The ‘Latino Santa’s Elf’, as he’d introduced himself, waved his hand around wildly. Steve absently wondered how he’d ended up here. “Please, Rey, please.”

Reyna rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively. “Whatever. Go ahead, Valdez.”

Leo, as the rest of the group had introduced him, straightened his shoulders and said, “Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, also known as the CEO of Stark Industries.”

Groans filled the air as the rest of the Demigods threw whatever was nearest at their Latino friend.

“For fucks sake, Leo, can you go five minutes without bringing up how ‘awesome your bosses are, seriously guys you’ll never guess what happened at SI today’. Reyna is going to stab you.”

Tony puffed up instantly. “He’s right!” He said, indignant. Steve had to admire Tony’s disregard for threats of stabbing in the face of defending one of his soulmates. “But there’s no need to worry – Pepper is a benevolent and merciful ruler, with no tolerance for any bullshit phobias.”

“What about arachnophobia?” Piper asked, nudging her blonde soulmate. “Is that a bullshit one?”

Tony hesitated. “I’d say spiders can kiss my ass but I’d prefer if they stayed far away from me.”

“Big fuckin’ mood,” Annabeth muttered.

“I was talking about homophobia, transphobia, acephobia, and all that other bullshit that assholes try to classify as fears.”

“Wow, I can’t believe I’m now stanning a cis, straight white male.” Piper tilted her head to the side. “Life’s really fucking out there, isn’t it?”

Tony, who had reared back in shock the moment ‘straight’ had left Piper’s mouth, looked infuriated. “Straight? _Straight_? I didn’t publicly propose to my platypus and my Pepper pot for anyone in the world to call me _straight_. I am a bisexual fucking disaster and I will be treated as such!” A second passed before, “And I’m _Italian_!”

The room was dead quiet. Nat’s shoulders were shaking as she tried to hold in her laughter. Steve’s face was splitting with a grin. Steve chanced a look over in the Demigod’s direction. Leo looked absolutely thrilled.

“MY BOSS IS A FUCKING BICON. HE DID THAT. _HE! DID! THAT!_”

It took almost ten minutes for the room to calm down after Reyna had lunged out of her chair and straight at Leo, who had shrieked and proceeded to burst into flames.

Nico and Will had leapt to their soulmate’s defense as Jason tried to hold Reyna back. Keyword: _tried_. Chaos erupted as the other Demigods chose their sides.

“Female solidarity!” Piper had yelled before diving into the fray, Hazel only a moment behind her.

In the end, all it really took was Lady Athena standing up and slamming her spear onto the floor. Although that could probably be attributed more to how the room started to shake than their either fear or respect of her. Reyna had frozen from where she had Leo in a leglock and looked up with a raised eyebrow.

“You will cease and desist immediately.” She turned to her daughter, who was perched on Frank’s shoulders, watching from the sidelines. “I assume you two can wrangle them into their regular behaviors. I must gather the other Olympians.”

h-s-b-s

Percy had barely even stepped foot on the Long Island coast when he caught sight of the three Fates standing a couple feet in front of him. _Oh fuck_, he thought. “Oh fuck,” he said.

Clotho, standing on his left, smiled at him reassuringly. “Do not fear, hero. We do not bear grievous tidings; we come instead with joyous information.”

Atropos seconded her sister with a gravelly voice. “We have seen, and indeed Clotho has created, the turn of your lives. They have never been filled with the happiness and matrimony that you or your soulmate had hoped for, but allow me to reassure you that the loss you have suffered was not for naught.” Percy’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure out what she was saying.

“Unfortunately, young Perseus, the deaths that you and your soulmate suffered were necessary for the world to move forwards on its correct path.” Percy felt a surge of indignant anger before it was sniffed out. He knew he would have sacrificed himself anyways, it just wouldn’t have hurt to been asked. “Your death as Lena Geoffrey was required for Captain America to risk his life to save humanity. If he would still have had you waiting for him, the likelihood of him crashing the _Valkyrie_ was slim to none. Back in your lives as Adelaide and Lucien, if you had not been guillotined at that moment, you and Lucien would have been married when it occurred. As it ended, Lucien became a notable figure in the government when it was finally established, and created many programs to aid the poor as you had aided those living on your land. His death as Martin Declan was necessary for you to go on to and found the American Red Cross as Clara Barton. You have both been monumentally important to the fabric of time.”

_Well golly gee, thanks so much for that. I’m glad that both me and Steve’s miserable, soulmate-less lives have been useful for you._

Lachesis pulled a string tight between her two fingers. “In this life, however, there is no pressing concern that requires you or your soulmate to be sacrificed to preserve the tapestry Clotho has weaved. In fact, you will both be stronger together in your defense of the world than apart. The time has come for you to be bonded, and to enjoy your lives.”

Percy almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was convinced that they were actually telling him that he or Steve would need to die again for some reason or other, but that his mental state couldn’t take it. “What?”

“Perseus Achilles Jackson, this life will be the first that you will get to live with your soulmate by your side. You will both live long, fulfilling lives, and only die years after meeting your great-grandchildren, and your friends’ great-grandchildren. This life is not meant to be cut short, but has been woven to be long and happy.” Atropos bowed her head. “So we swear on the River Styx.”

Percy was speechless. He would get to live with Steve? Finally? After all these lives of dying in the other’s arms they would finally get to live. Tears burned the back of his eyes at the thought. _Great-grandchildren_. They’d have _great-grandchildren_. And they’d actually get to _meet_ them. They’d live that long.

Most Demigods died before they reached forty, but Percy would have to live double that, at least. And his _friends’_ great-grandchildren too. God, his friends were going to be alive. They weren’t going to die young. They weren’t going to die for a long time.

h-s-b-s

Annabeth and Frank had the room cleaned up in quick order. Steve felt a little as though he should be standing at parade rest as they gave their final orders. He dismissed it quickly, but the thought still lingered in the back of his mind as he took in her and Frank’s general-esque demeanor.

“... Olympians will be in here any minute, and I’m almost positive they’ll be bringing your wayward Norse God and your archer with them. With any luck, they’ll also have Percy, because Estelle has not stopped texting me about where her big brother is since she stole Sally’s phone to play a game. Now, I want you all to sit back down in your chairs and make yourselves look presentable. Leo, that means you’re not allowed to light yourself on fire _or_ go off on another tangent about either of your bosses, or both. Reyna, no stabbing. Jason, stop tossing lightning around. Piper and Hazel, no giggling about things the Avengers don’t know. Nico and Will, I know you love each other and you love Leo but you are not allowed to spoon each other in the Allies Room. Avengers, do whatever the fuck you need to, and don’t do anything you don’t.”

Steve turned to his team. Bruce was smiling into his tea, and it showed how focused Steve had been on the Battle of the Demigods that he hadn’t even noticed when Bruce had gotten it. Tony was immersed in an email on his tablet, and frowning heavily. Steve figured it was an email from Pepper once again demanding he be present, and on time, to the SI press conference the next day. Nat was looking back at him, heavily amused.

Frank opened his mouth to say something when the door to the room flew open and slammed on the walls on either side. Annabeth and Frank turned to see who it was, but Piper had already started running forwards and slammed into Jackson.

“You’re alive!” She yelled, muffled by his shirt. He grinned and hugged her back.

“Aw Pipes, like an itty-bitty Kraken is enough to take me down.”

Annabeth was quick to follow her soulmate and crashed into the both of them.

“Group hug!” Hazel yelled and charged at them, Leo at her heels. Most of the other Demigods followed, with Nico being the last to join in, pulled in between his two soulmates. It took a couple of minutes for the Demigods to detach themselves from their leader, and he hadn’t stopped smiling the whole time.

“Perce, you good, dude?” Frank asked and clasped him on the shoulder.

“I’m great, man, never been happier.”

Annabeth crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “You got whammied by lightning and flung into the depths of the ocean and you’ve ‘never been happier’?”

Jackson shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “That’s it, yeah. But you’re missing a very important meeting I had on the coast of Long Island.”

Steve’s confusion only grew when the only thing the Demigods did was nod and make agreeing noises.

“What did Chiron say to you? Or was it another camper?”

_Chiron’s the centaur, right?_ Steve thought, lost. He really needed to brush up on his Greek mythology.

Nat nudged Steve lightly, “The Greek Camp must be in Long Island.”

Some of the confusion dissipated. It came back stronger with Jackson’s next sentence.

“Oh no, I met with the Fates.”

_Who are the Fates?_

All of the Demigods choked on air. “You met _who_?” Nico yelled, the first to recover. “And you’re _happy about it?!_”

Percy’s grin turned slyer. “Oh yeah.” He agreed. “I’m overjoyed, really. They gave me some great news.” His eyes slid across the friends surrounding him to meet Steve’s. His grin turned brighter, and he stepped through the crowd of Demigods to cross the room until he was standing in front of Steve.

He held out a hand, still all smiles and crinkling eyes. “Sorry about before,” he said, and Steve felt his heart stop in his chest. “I may have panicked a little when I saw you looking the exact same as last life.”

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed this one! like i said, i don't know how it got this long. please leave a comment or a kudos if you liked it! 
> 
> approx. 2 minutes after percy says his first words to steve:  
the olympians, thor, & clint walk into the room  
percy & steve: staring dopily into each other's eyes  
clint: what the f u c k did i miss?????


End file.
